Obama: FIFA should have given us the 2022 World Cup instead of Qatar

posted at 5:43 pm on December 2, 2010 by Allahpundit

Er, no, they shouldn’t have, although of course Obama’s answer was the smart one politically. For starters, soccer was, is, and always will be a lost cause here. FIFA’s better off stirring up interest in the Muslim world, where they might get some marginal return in fan attention, instead of wasting another tourney on our market. Beyond that, it’ll be high-larious watching soccer fanatics try to cope with 110 degree heat and shari’a law that makes alcohol scarce and shorts and t-shirts “inappropriate” attire — even for men. (Russia, which was awarded the 2018 Cup today, promises pretty much the opposite problems.) That’s assuming, of course, that Qatar still has those regulations in place by 2022. The great hope, as is always the case when a repressive regime hosts a major sports event, is that the promise of tourism revenue and global media attention will lead them to liberalize. Tunku Varadarajan wishes upon a star:

Most significantly, this is the first time that the world has entrusted a global event to a Muslim, Arab country, and it was moving to see Qatar’s charming young crown prince choke up with emotion as he gave his thanks for the vote of confidence. There can hardly have been an onlooker who would not have wanted to go up to the young man and shake his hand.

I believe that the Qatar World Cup will be a most effective weapon against al Qaeda and the forces of Islamist darkness. Arab society has seen the world embrace it in a truly global enterprise, and will, I believe, rise to the challenge—a challenge that includes not merely effective organization, but a transformation of traditional ways into cosmopolitan ones. Qatar will play host to tens of thousands of fans from around the world—men and women who will expect to sit together, women who will expect total equality and the right to dress as they please, fans who will want—and not expect to be denied—a drink…Fans who will have no truck with religious police, modesty police, or killjoys of any kind. And if Israel qualifies, Qatar will not be able to deny it the right to play, for the first time, on Arab soil. Think of that.

All this could be electrifying and transformative—the 2022 World Cup could, without exaggeration, bring about a cultural revolution.

Could be, although China’s a culture in need of a little revolutionizin’ too and the Beijing Olympics haven’t seemed to make much of a dent. There’s also a question, as there was with the South Africa Cup, of whether spending billions on soccer is the best investment a third-world country can make. Probably not an issue in this particular case, though: Thanks to black gold, Qatar boasts the second highest per capita income of any nation on earth and is promising to spend upwards of $50 billion(!) on infrastructure if need be to make things run smoothly. They’re also vowing to share the wealth with poorer countries — sort of:

Central to their bid was a revolutionary cooling system that would use solar power to provide zero-carbon air conditioning to cool the stadiums, technology that has the potential to transform the lives of tens of millions living near the equator.

And it is the legacy that a Middle Eastern World Cup could bring that has arguably persuaded FIFA to take a risk on Qatar. After the tournament, Qatar has promised to dismantle the modular stadiums and rebuild them in third world countries who can’t afford their own.

We’ll see. For your viewing pleasure below, a recent highlight of the Qatari team in action. Don’t expect the host nation to be hoisting the Cup in 2022, even with 12 years to prepare. Exit question: Is a country with a total population of around a million people really equipped to host an event like this? Said Eric Wynalda, a former U.S. team player, “a successful World Cup would mean the attendance would be twice the population.”

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Thanks to black gold, Qatar boasts the second highest per capita income of any nation on earth and is promising to spend upwards of $50 billion(!) on infrastructure if need be to make things run smoothly.

Infidels are grabbed up all the time for human sacrifice to the brutal god of islam. Just because you don’t hear about it in the MSM doesn’t mean it’s not happening.

Example: an archbishop was beheaded by a muslem months ago, how many folks heard about it? Muslems have beheaded people in Europe and right here in America recently.

All those infidels lording it up in islamic lands, you know every terrorist worth his she-goat is going to want in on that action. Mohammad demanded human sacrifice from his followers, and they are happy to oblige.

They should have caught on years ago when even Pele couldn’t get people in America excited about soccer. Only the yuppie parents who don’t want any of their children disappointed are enthused by soccer.

Just because it’s not huge at the professional level doesn’t mean much. The only reason why it hasn’t caught on professionally, is that they can’t stop the match every 3 minutes to bombard you with idiotic beer commercials.

That is twelve years away. We just have to hang on a dozen more years before soccer hooliganism turns Islam into a kitten. Cause 1400 years of a soul enslaving ideology can’t cope with soccer whores. Tunku WTF?

Sorry, Jet, but who? I even watched some of the world cup. Maybe it’s just my house though.

Esthier on December 2, 2010 at 6:06 PM

Who?

misterpeasea on December 2, 2010 at 6:07 PM

Holy mo y’all are killin’ me :D

Perhaps I’m a little wrong on the name recognition…but I mean, come on! Landon Donovan is perhaps the best soccer player in the US. And was instrumental in getting the US team as far as they went in the last World Cup. His name was everywhere, or so I thought.

Too bad soccer sucks. Make the field smaller or put more men on the field and give a possession clock to the teams and then you got somethin’ going on.

lorien1973 on December 2, 2010 at 5:56 PM

They did have that and it failed. It was called the MISL (Major Indoor Soccer League) and I thought it was great. It was played in indoor sports arenas and they used the walls like hockey. It was fast and lots of scoring. The league lasted a dozen years. I was in San Diego during that time and the San Diego Soccers won the league about 10 of those years. Great for us, but bad for the league as interest around the rest of the country died…

Pinning this on Obama is silly and untrue — FIFA corruption and their insatiable agenda of “social change” were the deciding factors. Nothing these suits love more than to claim the mantle of making a social/political impact AND stuffing their pockets with dirty money — which made the Qatar bid a wet dream impossible to refuse.

One thing I need to correct, Allah: The “US will never care about soccer” is not really true. It’s irrefutably exploding in popularity, with millions of new homegrown fans. The ’94 WC was economically the most successful world cup ever held, so rest assured FIFA would have had far more than “marginal returns.” Every 100K stadium would have been filled to the brim every single game, and there’s no doubt the nation would catch the fever (many already do). And that’s before you consider the many foreigners living in America, who naturally are already fans and could fill the stadiums by themselves.

It really is ridiculous. Obama’s election win was supposed to restore the standing of the United States in eyes of other nations, and they still kick us in the butt.

Soon enough, they are going to have to tie a pork chop around Barry’s neck to get Bo the dog to come to him.

portlandon on December 2, 2010 at 6:01 PM

Meanwhile the rest of the world continues to think what it always has about us, that we are a bunch of uncultured, backwoods, redneck hicks, who for some reason they cannot fathom, seem to have a knack for making money. But since we like to give that money away, what-the-hell. No doubt they also think it is cute how we believed that electing Obama would make them like us.

Compare a big Hockey brawl to a Baseball brawl – it’s a hoot watching those big, brawny Baseball players giving their fake bitch-slaps to the opposing players. What a bunch of mommas’ boys!

If you’re gonna charge somebody and pretend you’re going to man-up and fight them, at least put in a bit of real effort. Those nancy-boy bitch-slaps and wussy pushing matches ain’t gonna cut it. You girly-men, with your fake outrage are pathetic! Go to a Hockey game and see how real men fight!

I don’t get the appeal of watching soccer. It seems every few minutes in every game I have attempted to watch one of these so-called men drops to the ground like his spleen was shot out of him after being in close proximity to another player. Do soccer players really reek so bad that they have this zone of disability around them?

My, my, my. All that bowing and scraping, all those apologies, all that butt-kissing. All for naught. Hope he enjoyed that premature Nobel, because it looks like he is going to get bupkis the rest of the way.

This clod thought President was just a stepping stone toward King of all He Surveys. He can’t even get the world to give him a soccer tournament.